Another Republican Board of Education Chair Resigns

It’s happened again. In 2024 Republican BOE chair Karen Kowalski resigned her membership on the school board. She had served as chair for just about six months.

Today it is Republican BOE chair Dr. Michael-Joseph Mercanti-Anthony who is resigning, having been chair for just about nine months.

Dr. Michael-Joseph Mercanti-Anthony at the BOE meeting on Nov 20, 2025 Photo: Leslie Yager

On Thursday, Dr. Mercanti-Anthony emailed the board and Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones to say, “I know you all are aware by now, but please consider this my official resignation notice, effective August 26th, 2026.”

Mercanti-Anthony’s email to colleagues said he planned to make a statement to the press later this month, but none has been received and he did not respond to a request for comment as of publication time.

Mercanti-Anthony first joined the board for a four-year term in November 2021 after running as part of a Republican slate.

Ms Kowalski’s July 2024 resignation was the start of a turbulent time for the school board.

Three months passed after Kowalski’s resignation before the BOE voted during an emergency meeting on Oct 21, 2024 on a Republican replacement. The board voted 4-1 to install Jen Behette to fill Kowalski’s spot until the next municipal election. The vote was 4–1, with Mercanti-Anthony opposed, calling it “a railroad.”

The day after Ms Behette was voted in, the Republican-controlled Board of Selectmen voted 2-0-1 to appoint Republican Paul Cappiali, with Democrat Janet Stone McGuigan abstaining.

The school board did not seat Mr. Cappiali. Ms Behette was seated.

Then, in December 9, 2024, the First Selectman sued the Board of Education over the emergency meeting where Ms Behette was elected.

While the FOIA commission ultimately ruled in October 2025 that meeting violated FOIA regulations, the lawsuit, which many Democrats now describe as moot given Mr. Cappiali was elected as part of a slate and is a sitting member of the board, is ongoing.

(Per the CT Judicial Branch website a trial scheduled for April 20, 2027. The most recent motion was from the defendants on July 28.)

After Mercanti-Anthony’s four year term came to an end in 2025, he accepted the RTC’s nomination for an additional two-year term.

“I am running unopposed for the two-year term left from Karen Kowalski’s resignation on the Republican side,” he wrote in an October 2025 letter to the editor.

The board is comprised of four Democrats and four Republicans. Per BOE policy, five votes are required to select a chair. If there are tie votes and a chair not chosen within one month, the decision is kicked over to the Board of Selectmen.

That resulted in Republican Peter Sherr becoming chair of the school board in 2016 and Ms. Kowalski in 2024.

Greenwich Town Clerk Jackie Budkins swears in newly elected BOE members, left to right, Bob Chaney, Dr. Michael-Joseph Mercanti-Anthony (incumbent), Paul Cappiali, Veronica Chiavaroli and Karen Krause. Nov 20, 2025 Photo: Leslie Yager

Dr. Mercanti-Anthony was elected unanimously 8-0 to be chair of the Board of Education in Nov 20, 2025.

After being elected chair at the Nov 2025 school board meeting, Mercanti-Anthony saying to the audience, “We ask for your grace.”

Given the unanimous vote, he added that he appreciated his colleagues’ faith in him.

“We have a new board – half of us are brand new. We have new leadership and it’s easy to forget that we are all in this together,” he said at the time, noting the numerous school projects in the works, including the new Central Middle school, renovations at Julian Curtiss School, Old Greenwich School and Riverside School, as well as the pool project at Greenwich High School.

“In Greenwich we tend to get so caught up in the issue of the day, the challenge of the moment, we lose sight of the real success and progress we should all be proud of,” Mercanti-Anthony said after being elected chair.

Among the issues Mercanti championed on the school board were a cell phone ban at Greenwich High School and an expansion of the number of nights that Cardinal stadium could have lights.

Given Dr. Mercanti-Anthony’s resignation is effective August 26, the school board is looking for a resident who is registered with the Republican party and interested in taking the seat on the board. The term will last one year, until the next municipal election in November 2027.

Anyone who is interested in serving on the school board may submit their resume and letter of interest to the district’s board clerk, Michael Antonaccio, [email protected] by Tuesday, August 25.

From there, a vote of the remaining members of the school board to select a new board member will occur as soon as possible after August 26.